By mid-September of 1942, the German army had leveled the once prosperous
city of Stalingrad, and pushed Soviet defenses to banks of the Volga. If
Stalingrad falls, Soviet defeat is inevitable. Enemy at the Gates
commences at this crucial and desperate moment for the Red
army.

A propaganda officer for the Soviets, Commander
Danilov (Joseph Fiennes),
stumbles upon a solution for waning morale in the person of Vassili
Zaitzev (Jude Law). Zaitzev, a simple man from the Ural Mountains,
possesses an uncanny amount of skill in marksmanship and is promptly
transferred into the sniper unit. He quickly amasses a high body count.
Through his newspaper, Commander Danilov turns Zaitzev into a hero of
mythical proportions, and in doing so provides hope for the beleaguered
Soviets. Zaitzev's growing fame draws the attention of the German army,
and the Nazis send their most decorated sniper, Major Koenig (Ed Harris),
to eliminate him. Zaitzev's war of wits and skill with Koenig parallels
his silent conflict with Commander Danilov over the love of Tania Chernova
(Rachel Weisz), a displaced Jewish girl from Stalingrad.

Without a doubt, the strong point of Enemy at the
Gates is the
astounding recreation of the destroyed city of Stalingrad and its aura of
desperation. The film makes an effort for realism and historical accuracy
(the story is based on the real-life exploits of Vassili Zaitzev), but it
succeeds mainly in the cinematography.

Although all of the leads deliver strong
performances, they do not
overshadow the movie's weak plot. For the cynical moviegoer, the love
triangle between Fiennes, Weisz, and Law turns into a bit cliché,
culminating in an uncomfortable and out-of-place love scene. However, the
ongoing duel between Law and Harris brings a refreshing air of the Western
genre into this war-pic. The larger scope of the battle of Stalingrad
narrows to the cat-and-mouse game between two gun-slinging
snipers.

The film provides a novel approach to a rarely
covered side of W.W.II.
However "Hollywood" it inevitably becomes, Enemy at the Gates
offers
enough substance to make it worth a viewing.